Build A Bear Workshop

Today we have been to the Build A Bear Workshop at The White Rose Shopping Centre, Leeds. The boys have been ever so excited about this visit and they haven't stopped asking when we are going so I was ever so pleased to tell them today was the day they got to make bears.
When we arrived at the store we were greeted by a lovely staff member called Claire. She told the boys all about the wonderful bears or animals that they could choose and explained how the bears were made. the hardest bit was for the boys deciding which teddy they wanted to make as you can see by Callum's face it was a tough decision.

Eventually Callum chose a teddy to be made, Nathan a monkey and James wanted a dog teddy.

Once the boys had chosen their teddies the lovely Vicky came to help them. We were shown the different sound buttons that a teddy can have in it and even shown a special heart that when pressed sounds and feels like a real heartbeat. Callum decided he wanted The Smurfs sound button in his teddy and as Nathan was having a monkey he decided that he wanted the monkey noise too. James on the other hand wasn't very fussed by the noises so he didn't have one put in his teddy.

The next step after putting the sound button in the teddy is stuffing, now to me this is one of the best bits and I'm pretty sure both Callum and Nathan would agree with this as they both enjoyed watching the huge fluff machine spinning round and round, plus they got to help out with this bit.

Now once the bears are stuffed comes the bit that is probably the most important bit of all bringing the teddies to life. Each of us took a little heart in our hand and had to do exactly what Vicky told us to do, we placed the hearts on our noses, heads, knees and tummys. The reason for this was to help the teddies become wise, playful and loving. One last thing to do to the hearts was to kiss them and make a wish, I'm not sure what the boys wished for but I know my wish although a secret is only a wish a mummy could make!. The boys placed their hearts in each on their teddies and then Matt and I also placed the hearts we were holding in with them too. Once this was done the teddies were sewn up.

The boys were then told that they could choose an outfit for their teddies, Nathan chose some lovely Lightning Mcqueen Pyjamas and slippers whilst Matt helped James chose a fisherman's outfit (definitely more Matt's choice than James' I think). Callum didnt want an oufit for his bear but instead chose a bed for his teddy to sleep in. There are many different types of clothes and accessories for bears these can be purchased in store or online here. It was definitely hard work for the boys deciding what to pick as there is so much variety.

We helped the boys to make birth certificates for their teddies, we chose them a name each, Cheeky Monkey, Rover the dog and Bobby Bear. We were given the bears in big boxes so we could take them home and we all had our photo taken with our new teddies (in their boxes).

The picture we had taken

Here are the finished teddies complete with outfits (and bed)

As you can see from Nathan's picture below he loves his monkey very much.

We have loved every second of our visit to the store and will definitely be going again soon. The staff are wonderful and cannot be praised enough by us. They made the boys laugh got them to do things they wouldn't normally do and made us feel really welcome in the store. I honestly don't know how they have the energy to keep smiling and bouncy all day long but they do. It is really nice to see this too as sometimes when I visit a shop even when aimed at children I get the feeling the staff would rather be elsewhere, and in my opinion when you work in this type of atmosphere you must be willing to help your customers and make it an enjoyable experience for them. For this reason I am rating the staff at the Leeds Build a Bear Workshop with a fantastic 5/5, we also give the experience of building a bear a 5/5 too. We will be highly recommending our friends to try this but definitely telling all our local and close friends to go see Vicky and her staff in the Leeds store.